Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY requires students to take one Cross-Cultural course. I wanted opinions on whether it is too ethnocentric to define cross-cultural as cultures other than the United States and Europe. The definition is assuming that students' ancestry is European rather than African, Asian, or something else. Of the 93 Cross-Cultural courses to choose from (some of which may rarely or never be offered), "How Do You Say ‘Queer’ in Spanish? Gender, Sexuality, Identity and Citizenship" in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies department is the only one to mention Europe or a European language. Here are some sample Cross-Cultural course titles: History of Africa to 1800 Modern China Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa Asian Art The African Novel Native American Literature The full list can be found at http://bulletin.hofstra.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=49&poid=4525 On a related note, my high school used the term "LOTE" (Languages Other Than English), whereas Hofstra used the more ethnocentric term of "Foreign Language." In general I would expect the more ethnocentric term to be used in high schools rather than colleges. When I say ethnocentric, I mean the second definition at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethnocentric which is "a tendency to view alien groups or cultures from the perspective of one's own." I don't mean the first definition, which is "the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture."
I think you're over-thinking this, especially the term "ethnocentrism." Not that that's a bad thing. From what I know about Hofstra, they're not assuming that the student is of European descent necessarily (they have a high % of Jewish students). They want you to engage cultural and social constructs critically. I'm encouraged that you are challenging yourself mentally to think about culture and its impact on human relations and how that affects a variety of academic disciplines and life in general. That is what college is all about. Take the class that most interests you and that doesn't throw your schedule way out of whack. Take into account professor's reputation, but bear in mind that most 18-19 year olds want an easy A or an easy class and can be downright schizophrenic when it comes to feedback not given on a silver spoon and a warm glass of milk to make them feel all better afterward, or to being challenged to ... you know ... go to class and ... you know... study. As far as LOTE vs. Modern Languages vs. Foreign Languages vs. schools w/ large enough languages to have separate departments for Spanish, French, Italian or whatever... There's no universal consensus and it's irrelevant. It's simply a case of semantics. Bon chance, buena suerte, good luck!
By the way, do you know what your major is? That will help in figuring out which class to take. And bear in mind that the average student changes their major around 4x. Also: the first class listed is cutting edge. That instructor is on top of his or her game. In the 60's and 70's we had deconstruction/post-modernism, which gave rise to post-colonialism (as well and new impetus for gender studies). Now that colonialism has been de-constructed politically and intellectually, the project now is about de-colonization. Anywho... a lot of the lit classes on the list will probably be in the target language, so unless you got a 5 on an AP language exam and/or a 5 on an AP foreign lit exam, you won't be able to take some of those classes. And even if you have, oftentimes you have to take a bridge course before going into an upper division lit course in a foreign language.
Thanks for the advice, but I graduated from Hofstra in 2007. I majored in Economics and minored in Political Science.
If you're talking about "Women and Development", it sounds like a lower division sociology survey course, and the scope of the subject matter, i.e., Asian and African social groups and the place of women in those groups -- to summarize -- is enormous, based on the idea that there is little homogeneity in those two large groups. Africa has a large Islamic population, but several African nations are predominately non-Islamic, which means that any evaluation of African social groups will have to be done on two primary fronts. As far as Asia is concerned, Islam is alive and well, also, especially in Indonesia, but China and S. Korea have shown to be hotbeds of Christian growth, which should have some impact on how women are treated/viewed, within those subcultures. As an aside, my brother specialized in a sociological evaluation of the impact of the global economy on non- Marxist Central African agrarian systems. The Hofstra course sounds very interesting, but a huge undertaking.